Cops: Cabdriver caught sexually assaulting passenger

(MCT) — Alerted by friends of a woman held captive in a taxi, police found the cabdriver sexually assaulting the passenger over the weekend, police said Monday night.

The 24-year-old Arlington Heights woman had entered the taxi with two friends after leaving a bar in Prospect Heights early Sunday, according to the Schaumburg Police Department.

The women asked the cab to stop after the driver, later identified by police as Eric Chung, 29, began acting "inappropriately," according to police.

Two of the friends managed to leave at a red light, but Chung started driving before the third passenger could leave.

After the friends called police, authorities in Arlington Heights launched a search for the cab. Shortly after, police determined the cab was in Schaumburg and alerted the Schaumburg Police Department.

About 5:30 a.m., Schaumburg police found a vehicle matching the cab's description in the 800 block of East Algonquin Road. As officers approached, they heard a woman yelling, and they discovered a sexual assault in progress.

Chung was taken into custody, and the woman was taken to a local hospital and treated for injuries that were not belived to be life-threatening.

Police have charged Chung, whose last known address was in the 1900 block of Wong Parkway in Chicago, with aggravated kidnapped and aggravated criminal sexual assault.

He is expected in bond court Tuesday morning.

At the time of the assault, Chung had been driving a cab with with markings of the AAA Futura Taxi Service. Chung had worked for the company for only a week and a half before being terminated last Wednesday for failing to pay the company money he owed, owner Bernie Valenzuela said.

Drivers are supposed to remove the company lettering from their vehicle after being terminated, Valenzuela said.